The lack of respect and hypocrisy in the Biden administration’s application of its policy of environmental justice toward Alaska’s Natives was on full display when on March 14 Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland withdrew from the 2019 land exchange in the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge that the department had agreed to with the King Cove Corp. and Agdaagux and Belkofski tribes.
This land exchange was intended to provide the people of King Cove with the opportunity to seek permits to construct an 11-mile gravel road to medevac people from the all-weather Cold Bay airport when bad weather prevented aircraft from landing in King Cove.
The Department of Justice had defended the land exchange in a March 2021 appeal to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (which it won) and in an August 2022 appeal to a larger panel of the same court, a decision from which was pending at the time of the administration’s withdrawal from the land trade. That’s right, the Biden administration defended the land exchange for two years after it came into office.
Why did the White House suddenly withdraw from the land exchange on March 14?
The day before the Biden administration had ever so reluctantly agreed that the Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska could proceed. This was the right call from a national energy security perspective. But hyper-outrage about the Willow decision from environmental groups went into overdrive.
So, a sacrifice was needed. Someone decided that withdrawing from the land exchange would somehow appease environmentalists for the Willow decision, and Haaland was required to take responsibility.
The betrayal of Alaska Natives in King Cove is consistent with the pattern of environmental justice application to Alaska. When environmental groups oppose a project in Alaska, such as the Tongass National Forest exemption from the 2001 roadless rule or the Ambler road project to open up a mining district in Northwest Alaska, the White House will oppose it on environmental justice grounds. But there’s no environmental justice for a project needed by Alaska Natives when the environmental groups oppose a project.
In fairness, environmental groups have opposed the 2019 land exchange since former Secretary of Interior David Bernhardt made it in 2019. They have ceaselessly lobbied the Biden White House to withdraw from it. It took Biden’s approval of Willow to provide the administration’s political need to make it happen.
It is painful to see how the administration and environmental groups’ environmental justice hypocrisy impacts the lives of the people of King Cove. I have been intensely involved in the issue since my time in the Senate and when I was governor.
Why? For humanitarian reasons. There is no certain way out of King Cove in a medical emergency during one of its notorious and frequent bad weather events.
Nancy and I are aware of a mother trying to keep a sick newborn warm while crossing Cold Bay during a winter storm and then having to climb a 25-foot ladder on the Cold Bay side. How can anyone think that this is OK? If this problem occurred where they live, they would react very differently. It is disgusting that the environmental groups are not concerned for the health and safety of people who live there.
Alaska’s problem is that our transportation lanes go through federal land, and access is always opposed by environmental groups. Alaska must have the opportunities that only the federal government can give us. We must continue to fight for our rights of access.
This surely must include an 11-mile gravel road to medical safety for the people of King Cove. The White House’s lack of compassion is not acceptable.
Frank H. Murkowski is a former U.S. senator (1981-2002) and Alaska governor (2002-2006).
Reader Comments(0)